The invention pertains to a preformed part for supporting surfaces for animals in a stable.
The invention refers especially to preformed parts of which intermediate floors in stables are assembled, where the preformed parts are laid onto rods of a grating and thereby a space is created between the tread surface of the floor and the stable floor, into which run liquid manure and other liquids, in order to assure a clean tread surface. Such preformed bodies are normally finished parts and consist of thermoplastic plastic. Due to their meshing with the grating rods, and with the aid of the horizontally meshing connections and the vertical mortise joints, they are held in place, secured against sliding in any direction.
Finished parts of this type are known (DE-PS 39 27 462). Their preformed body carries on opposing sides the dovetailing, the teeth of which are provided with recesses, so that the preformed parts can be pushed from above onto the profiles of the grating rods. The dovetail joints are, however, located in the opposite side of the preformed bodies which, as a rule, are of rectangular shape. The tread surface that has been made slideproof by a special profiling is a unit with downward extending preformed body edges and profiles which are supposed to increase the shape rigidity of the preformed part. The tread surface is interrupted by slot-like openings through which the liquid manure and other liquids run to the outside. However, the plate of the preformed body may through the described characteristics be penetrated by the slot-like openings without significant loss of strength.
In the practical application of such and other floors occurs a problem with sensitive animals, e.g., in pig farming, due to the low temperatures assumed by the stable floors, which increases especially in the cold season, especially if the floors consist, as described, of plastic. This is so, because the animals must be provided with adequately tempered surfaces to lie down on. Heated stable floors are already known, consisting of various materials. If those floors, in order to avoid costly electric resistant heating, are provided with a warm water heating arrangement, they consist of plates that contain built-in pipes through which the heating medium flows. Hence, stable floors of such finished parts are extraordinarily expensive and as a rule not suitable for normal livestock husbandry.